acnumber1

April 12th, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^

All I could think was 'oh my goodness he is losing valuable minutes of active improvement chatting in the stands while his players wait around idly'.  Does this mean Harbaugh is getting in my head?

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rob f

April 12th, 2015 at 10:35 AM ^

would have been to let the fans actually be on the sidelines drawing up the plays in the sand (they do have plenty of sand down there in arizona, right?).

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Honk if Ufer M…

April 12th, 2015 at 6:01 PM ^

Oh jesus please 99, DickRod dropped a giant dayglo halo out of his ass on top of the entire program! Give it a rest! Go suck DickRod's cactus juice in the desert if he makes your mouth water so much and leave Michigan and it's tired old traditions to the millions of fans who love them! We'll miss you so much we won't know what we're missing.

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MGoPoints: 591

cobra14

April 12th, 2015 at 10:44 AM ^

He did it at Michigan also!! You could text the play you want to see. Try paying attention RR lovers!! Stop blaming Carr, tradition, etc and blame his record and his lack of defense for his issues here.

Joined: 05/16/2012

MGoPoints: 8448

falco_alba15

April 12th, 2015 at 10:52 AM ^

I'm not his biggest fan, but it wasn't his record that was the main cause of the issues currently. He was 7-5 in his last season and those players then turned in 11-2 in Hoke's first season. He is considered to be a better coach than Hoke at this point, so maybe the bigger picture does matter.



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EGD

April 12th, 2015 at 10:52 AM ^

Rich Rod failed at Michigan because he couldn't put a good defense together and lost too many games.

There? Satisfied? Now, I am still a big fan of Rich Rod and am glad to see him doing well out west.

Joined: 09/16/2009

MGoPoints: 35199

BigBlue02

April 12th, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^

Unless you think Jim Harbaugh is a bad coach, winning and losing has a lot to do with support from the top down. Harbaugh went to 3 straight NFC championship games and then, after rumors of him not getting along with management get out, misses the playoffs and loses to the worst team in the league, giving them their 2nd win of the season at the time. I am a firm believer that even if RichRod's defense was better, the lack of support would have doomed him. How is this for a stat-we had a better defense than Michigan state in RichRod's first two years here. It's amazing what losing all your upperclassmen does to your defense. Kinda like what losing all your upperclassmen on offense would do (see-record in 2008).

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: -1003

snarling wolverine

April 12th, 2015 at 4:51 PM ^

How is this for a stat-we had a better defense than Michigan state in RichRod's first two years here. It's amazing what losing all your upperclassmen does to your defense.

I don't like to pile on a fired coach, but the revisionism of those years is tiresome.

RichRod inherited most of a defense that had finished #11 in FEI 2007. In his first year we dropped down to #44, which seemed catastrophically bad by our standards and led to Shafer being undercut by midseason and then shown the door. Then in 2009, with new DC GERG running the show, we collapsed further to #60.  This led to GERG being forced to run the 3-3-5 - and us finishing #109 in 2010. 

Needless to say, Rich's defensive management left something to be desired.   His best bet would have been to stay out of Shafer's way and let him run the show the whole time, but he kept panicking and interfering - and each panic move led to worse results.  

My biggest criticism of Three and Out was that Bacon glossed over the defensive issues, despite the monster collapse and soap opera-esque stuff that reportedly went on behind the scenes.  

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BigBlue02

April 12th, 2015 at 7:34 PM ^

I also remember stories of defensive players purposefully giving up on RichRod in his first year. I wasn't trying for revisionism, I was trying to say that his defense was not as bad as MSU's his first two years, and we all know how their defense has turned out. No, RichRod's defense wasn't great while here, but it wasn't 109th every year either. Given ex-players disassociating with the program and the few players that did stick with the team giving up on him, I'd say the revisionism is of those who think RichRod just decided defense wasn't important. I swear there are so many new people on this site that no one remembers "decimated defense." Yes, RichRod took over a talented defense. And then it wasn't talented because of attrition and Lloyd forgetting to recruit defense at the end of his career

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: -1003

rbgoblue

April 12th, 2015 at 12:48 PM ^

The RR spring scrimmage where Tate lit it up heading into two was special tho. Fans had such low expectations after the tremendous disappointment of year 1, but that spring scrimmage certainly showed the potential of RR's offense with the right QB for his system. In hindsight, it probably should have given us grave concerns for the defense, however.



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Don

April 12th, 2015 at 11:04 AM ^

He can let his inner goof shine brightly out there and they don't mind because they don't have the weight of all that "tradition" on their shoulders.

But let's not fool ourselves—if his record at AZ was the same as it was at Michigan, the Wildcat fans wouldn't be much happier than they were here. He was reasonably successful right out of the gate at AZ, and that made a huge difference.

If RR had been 7-5 his first season here, the trajectory from that point might have been very different. If nothing else, he would have had no reason to sack Schafer and replace him with GERG, a move which ensured his doom in Ann Arbor.

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EGD

April 12th, 2015 at 11:19 AM ^

I do tend to think Arizona would have been a lot more patient with him than we were--which is probably a function of the schools' respective expectations (based on historical performance/tradition). But yeah, 3-9 at Michigan makes for a very short honeymoon, no matter what the circumstances.

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snarling wolverine

April 12th, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^

In the four years before RichRod, Arizona went 8-5, 8-5, 7-6 and 4-8.  If he had started out by going 3-9 and 5-7, as he did here, I imagine he'd have been in a lot of hot water.  Now, I'm guessing he wouldn't have been fired after the third year, but he would have been under a lot of scrutiny going into year 4.

 

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Honk if Ufer M…

April 12th, 2015 at 10:57 PM ^

You guys keep talking about DickRod's defense as if it was the only problem, but let's be real, he stunk on offense too. First of all, the only offense he had was Denard's feet. The offense was a turnover/mistake/penalty machine. Most of the passing ranged from 3 yards and a cloud of air to minus 3 yards and a cloud of air. When we scored it was lightning quick & when we didn't it was 3 and out so the D was always on the field. We never sustained drives to eat the clock, limit the plays of the other team or wear out thier defense. Our offense wore out our defense.

Most of our  scoring only came against bad teams.

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MGoPoints: 591

WestSider

April 13th, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^

I appreciate your views, even if I don't agree with all of them. You make some good points. Just asking you to please call Rodriguez by his name. He deserves our respect. RR tried very hard to win at Michigan, and tried to fit in. Calling him names is just disrespectful, unnecessary, and dilutes your remarks.

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MGoPoints: 5979

Honk if Ufer M…

April 20th, 2015 at 4:19 PM ^

Well most of the athletes & others that knew him that I spoke to about him during his time here painted a picture of him not respecting others. I don't think he respected or cared about what Michigan was about, it's history, tradition, or fans. He didn't show respect to the outgoing coaches either.

Most of his fans have an insane and obnoxious attitude toward anyone who doesn't subscribe to their convictions that he didn't deserve or need to go, or anyone who thinks he did a bad job. They are condescending & act like we're stupid & out of touch because we don't blame everything and everyone BUT RR for his record setting futility. Calling him DickRod is partially to respond to that.

I don't like the guy. I don't like the way he came in. I didn't like the way he acted. I call him a name, sort of ... Dick is an accepted short for Richard (why? How?), if he is RichRod he is also DickRod. I have a friend who refers to himself either way. I call him Richard, some only know him as Dick, some only know him as Richard. I think the change from RR to DR is mild and minor, it's probably closer to a poking fun nickname than it is a harsh name calling.

If it dilutes my remarks, well, I find that weird, the substance is the substance, you're indicating that you actually think one thing about my points, but you'll change your thinking or perception about RR or my analysis based on your dislike or disrespect for the messenger or his language. I think I'm either right or wrong or somewhere inbetween regardless of whether or not I'm properly respectful enough for someone's taste.

I don't have a vendetta for the guy and would rarely, if ever, go out of my way to talk about the guy except in response to ridiculous stances or rewriting of history from his groupies that keep gurgling up from under rocks that shouldn't keep being turned over.

But, sorry if it offends you anyway.

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I dumped the Dope

April 12th, 2015 at 11:10 AM ^

Rich rod amuses me, he has some flashes of brilliance but will always average a lot of suck.  The expression on his face in the bowl game was what I saw for game after game after game here at UM.

That Harbaugh referred to Brady Hoke as "a friend" and never once mentioned Rich Rod when it came to coachus emeritus like Moeller and Carr is validation enough for me.

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JTrain

April 12th, 2015 at 11:25 AM ^

Of course he referred to hike as a friend. Hoke coached with all the Harbaugh's, coached at Michigan, loves the Michigan way. A lot of parallels there.
Rich Rod was never a good fit here. Too much of a swing in offensive philosophy, lack of internal support, didn't kiss ass enough, didn't get the backing to get the defensive coordinator he originally wanted etc etc.
Do I think RR is a clown though? No. He's done well pretty much everywhere except for here. Probably would've kicked our ass last year too.
The fact that he didn't get Harbaugh's nod, imo, doesn't make him less of a man.



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Don

April 12th, 2015 at 11:16 AM ^

Certainly it was right and proper for JH to single out Hoke as a friend because Brady has a long-standing relationship with the Harbaughs, but pointedly ignoring RR was an unnecessary cheap shot. I would have been far more impressed if Harbaugh had been gracious enough to mention RR in a brief, positive comment.

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EGD

April 12th, 2015 at 11:25 AM ^

That's one of those things where JH is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. Omit RR, and he risks looking petty. Mention RR and he risks pissing off the old guard alumni who hate RR. But out of those two choices, not mentioning RR was probably the safer bet. The people who still like RR tend to be more nuanced thinkers and let small stuff like that go, plus the fact that RR is an active coach gives him kind of an out.

Joined: 09/16/2009

MGoPoints: 35199

snarling wolverine

April 12th, 2015 at 3:15 PM ^

The people who still like RR tend to be more nuanced thinkers

I don't know about that.  We've had our share of "Carr is the root of all evil and Rich died for his sins" posters.

RichRod attracted both hard-core admirers and haters, but I think most fans were in between. I cheered for him when he was here and hoped for the best, but after he was fired I moved on.  

 

 

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